SOMNAMBULISM. 



His proceedings were watched by a committee of gentle- 

 men, who reported the refult to the fociety above-mentioned. 

 His fleep was at all times unquiet, but the walking did not 

 occur every night ; fomrtimes feveral weeks pall, during 

 which he was free from it. The paroxyfm commonly be- 

 gan about three er four o'clock in the morning, and the 

 longeft of them lafted from three to four hours. It was 

 preceded by motions in every part of the body, with dart- 

 ing and palpitations : he then uttered broken words, and 

 fometimes fat up in his bed, and afterwards lay down again. 

 Then he began to pronounce words more diftindtiy, rofe 

 abruptly, and aSted according to the inftigation of his ima- 

 gination. When he came out of the paroxyfm, he did not 

 recoiled any of the aftions he had been performing. It was 

 dangerous, however, to awaken him during the continuance 

 of it, efpecially if it were done fuddenly ; for he fometimes 

 fell into convulfions. " Having rifen one night with the in- 

 tention of going to eat grapes, he left the Iioufe, pafled 

 through the town, and went to a vineyard, where he expect- 

 ed good cheer. He was followed by feveral pcrfons, who 

 kept at fome diftance from him, one of whom fired a piftol, 

 the noife of which inflantly awakened him, and he fell down 

 without fenfe. He was carried home and brought to him- 

 felf, when he recoUefted very well having been awakened 

 in the vineyard, but notliing more, except the fright at 

 being found in the vineyard alone, which had made him 

 fwoon." 



The following ftatements fhew how the impreffions of ex- 

 ternal objefts on the fenfes mingled with his reverie, as in 

 the cafe of ordinary dreams. See Dreams. 



" Once he was obferved drefiing himfelf in perfeft dark- 

 nefs. His clothes were on a large table, mixed with thofe 

 <if fome other perfons ; he immediately perceived thif, and 

 complained of it much : at laft a fmall light was brought, 

 and then he drefled himfelf with fuf5cient precifion. While 

 his imagination was employed on various fubjeAs, he heard a 

 clock ftrike, which repeated at every ftroke the note of the 

 cuckoo. ' There are cuckoos here,' faid he ; and, upon 

 being defired, he imitated the fong of that bird imme- 

 diately." Again, the reporters fay, " If he is teazed, or 

 gently pinched, he is always fenfible of it (unlefs he is at 

 the time ftrongly impreded with fome other thing), and widies 

 to ftrike the offender : however, he never attacks the perfon 

 who has done the ill, but an ideal being, whom his imagina- 

 tion prefents to him, and whom he purfues through the 

 chamber without running againll the furniture, nor can the 

 perfons whom he meets in his way divert him from the 

 purfuit." 



Other fafts, which the reporters record, irrprefTed them 

 with a belief that the deep-walker wa? capable of receiving 

 certain impreffions through the medium ot the fenfes, when 

 they accorded with the images which his imagination was oc- 

 cupied in forming ; but that this faculty was predominant, 

 and only admitted thofe perceptions which, on the princi- 

 ples of aliociation, m.ingled with the reverie. They interred, 

 too, that he was obliged to open his eyes, in order to recog- 

 nize objefls ; but that the impreffion, once made, although 

 rapidly, was vivid enough to fuperfede the neceffity of open- 

 ing them again ; that is, the fame objefls appeared to be 

 afterwards reprefented by the conceptionii of his imagination, 

 with as much force and precifion, as if he aftually fawthem. 

 In the effort to open his eyes, however, when he wifhed to 

 fee an objeft, he could fcarcely raife them a line or two, 

 by drawing up his brows ; and the iris appeared fixed, 

 and the eye dim. He made this effort whenever any thing 

 was prefeuted to him, and he was told of it, always half 



6 



opening his eyes with great difficulty, and then fhutting 

 them after he had taken what was offered. 



" Having engaged him to write a tiieme," the committee 

 obferve, " we iaw him light a candle, take pen, ink, and 

 paper from the drawer of his table, and begin to write, 

 while his maftcr diftated. As he was writing, we put a 

 thick paper before his eyes, notwithftanding wiiich he con- 

 tinued to write, and to form his letters very diflintlly ; 

 fliewing figns, however, that fomething incommoded him, 

 which apparently proceeded from the obftruftion which the 

 paper gave to his refpiration, being held too near his 

 nofe." 



" An experiment was made by changing the place of the 

 ink-ftandifh, while Devaud was writing. He had a light be- 

 fide him, and had certified himfelf of the place where his 

 inkholder was Handing by means of fight. From that time he 

 continued to take ink with precifion, without being oblio-ed 

 to open his eyes again : but the ink-ltandifh being removed, 

 his hand returned as ufual to the place where he thought it 

 was. It mud be obferved, that the motion of his hand was 

 rapid, till it reached the height of the ftandifli, and then he 

 moved it (lowly, till the pen gently touched tiie table, as he 

 was feekisg for the ink. He then perceived that a trick 

 had been put upon him, and complained of it : he went in 

 fearch of his ink-ftandifh, and put it in its place." 



This experiment, they af&rm, was feveral times repeated, 

 and was always attended with the fame circumllances. 

 And they put the following queftions refpefting tiie infer- 

 ences to be drawn from it. " Does not what we have here 

 ftated prove, that the ftandifti, the paper, the table, &c. 

 are painted on his imagination in as lively a manner as if he 

 really faw them ; fince he fought the real ftanuifh in the place 

 where his imagination told him it ought to have been ? Does 

 it not prove that the fame lively imagination is the caufe of 

 tliemoft fingular aftions of this fleep-walker ? And, laflly, 

 does it not prove that a mere glance of his eye is fufficient to 

 make his imprcfiions as lively as durable ?" 



Thcfe conclufions appear to be legitimate ; and the facts 

 feem to flicw how much more completely this condition of 

 the fomnambulift is allied to reverie, than lojleep, though com- 

 monly commencing from the latter. From the flighted de- 

 gree of abfence, or hroiun ftudy, as it is popularly called, 

 in which the conceptions of the imagination, upon fubjedls 

 that intereft the individual, are fa vivid as to exclude for a 

 time the perceptions excited by furrounding objeAs, up to 

 this complete fomnanibulifm, various degrees of the abftrac- 

 tion from external impreffions may be traced. Moil perfons, 

 perhaps, have been fenfible, at times, when any fubjeft of 

 fevere ftudy, or any great gratification, anxiety, or diflrefs 

 ftrongly occupied their minds, how great the difpofition to 

 this abftraftion has been. If engaged in reading, they have 

 purlued every line with the eye, turned over leaf after leaf, and 

 at length awoke from the reverie which had occupied the ima- 

 gination, and found that not the fmalleft imprefiion had been 

 made on the mindbv the pages which the eye liad periifed,and 

 the hand had turned over. If walking in a crowded ftreet, 

 they have probably proceeded fome way under the influence 

 of reverie, moving the limbs as ufual, direfling the walk- 

 ing-flick, and performing other unconfcious but voluntary 

 a£ls, winding fafely among the paffing people, avoiding the 

 pofts and other obftacles, but fo exclufivcly occupied by 

 the conceptions of the mind, as to be totally infenfible of all 

 thefe aftions of their own volition, and of the objefts 

 which they have paffed, and which neceffarily imprefs their 

 fenfes fo as to regulate thofe afts. From this ftate of the 

 faculties in reverie, which we have fo often experienced in our- 



fclves. 



